Encore 1

Encore 2

Who Went

Comments/Reviews

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2000-09-16 18:00.

the concert at the american was spectacular. project logic was ok, but when ben step on the stage, the mood automatically picked up. when he began to share his views of the gospel with us, i was stuck in my chair and so was everyone else that night. this concert was full of different people, parents, people of all ages, and even two of my teachers were at this show. that just shows ben power to reach people. this was my favorite concert of all time, and i want ben to return to ST.LOUIS again sometime soon.

i went to the show at the american theatre as one person and walked out as another. ben harpers music has always moved me in a way that none other can, but after seeing him perform live, i have an entirely new understanding. i feel that the entire crowd was as moved as i was while he was talking about the gospel. noone moved or talked for the entire time. i sat there with this unbelievably good feeling running through my veins, just soaking in his every word. this concert was definitely the best i have ever attended. project logic was amazing and energizing to start off the night, and then to cap it all off with ben, i was the happiest girl in the world. i enjoyed the diversity of the crowd... i am 20, and i saw people from my age up to my parents ages. i think its great that we can all love and appreciate his music and message in one big group. like i said, noone moves me in the way that ben harper does. and i want to keep it that way.

"For my best of 2000, I have to go back to St. Louis,. Missouri to one of the neatest old theaters you can see a show in, the American. Sure, the American Theater has gotten a little run down over the years, but the acoustics are so great and that balcony leans way out almost over the stage... I've never seen a bad show there or anything close to it in the American. When Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals played a show there in September, I drove up from Memphis with some friends to see him for the first time. DJ Logic set a nice tone to open the show, playing for a very diverse crowd. The one thing that really struck me was that they all had such a tremendous respect for the music. There was very little talking in the crowd during songs and everyone seem ed to be really tuned in to what was being played onstage. For someone only casually familiar with his music, I was swept up in power of his playing as well as his message. Switching guitars on almost every other song, he worked the slide guitar blues lin es as well as acoustic reggae songs rooted in the Marley tradition.

The moment of silence throughout the building when he came out to address the crowd for the first encore was impressive. He had the crowd on a string without even really trying. Harper rewarded the sold-out crowd for with a brand new song and did a cover of a Led Zeppelin song as well during the 5-song encore. He preached and sang the gospel in an open and non-threatening way. It was one of those nights where you really just had to be there. I never got to catch Harper play with Gov't Mule, but I can see why they would play so well together. The Innocent Criminals deserve the billing as well. They all stood out and shined as musicians quite impressively at various points in the evening. Perhaps the one thing that sealed the evening for me was getting to see two friends of mine who had gotten engaged at a Ben Harper concert previously, finally get to meet Ben and the band. Great nights like that when everything just comes together remind me that music is a magical thing that can't be matched."